As far as Marvel’s mutants go, Avalanche’s name could just as easily
have been Wallpaper Man. A member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants,
Freedom Force and other groups of mutants looking for a bad time or
otherwise working for the shady side of the government, Dominikos
Ioannis Petrakis isn’t one of the shining stars of the X-Men’s world.
His name is his power, but beyond that…not much. That’s why it’s all
the more surprising that he was one of the mutants who held on to his
powers on M-Day, an event during which the vast majority of Marvel’s
mutants lost their special powers.

So what’s he been doing since?

That’s where X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 and Frank Tieri come in. Manifest Destiny, a five issue anthology miniseries has been checking in on Marvel’s mutants since the staus quo change chronicled in Messiah Complex
and the resultant relocation of the mutants to San Francisco. The fifth
and final issue is due in stores on January 7th, and Tieri is writing
the story starring Avalanche. We caught up with him for some details.

Newsarama: Frank, you're taking part in X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5 - it's an anthology book, obviously, so how does one get a spot in the lineup?

Frank Tieri: You know, I have a pretty long history with the
X-office, but I hadn’t done anything over there in a while. So Nick
Lowe and I got to talking and he was like “Hey, I’ve got this X-Men: Manifest Destiny
thing in the works, why don’t you throw me a pitch for it?”. We tossed
around different characters to use, different types of stories to tell,
but the one we settled on was this little Avalanche number.

NRAMA: Why Avalanche?

FT: I’ve always been a sucker for the Brotherhood of Evil
Mutants—especially the first two, the Magneto and Mystique versions.
And while there’s been plenty of stories on Mystique, the Blob, Toad,
etc, there really haven’t been that many stories focusing on Avalanche.
Yeah, the guy’s been around for decades but what do we really know
about him outside of the fact he wears a goofy helmet and makes the
ground shake a lot?

X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5, page 5

NRAMA: Technically speaking this is the "return" of Avalanche.
He didn't lose his powers as a result of M-Day, but hasn't been seen
since. That said, Avalanche has a backstory and history, but yet M-Day
is a life-changing event for mutants. So how did you want to approach
him as a character? Same as it's ever been, to quote the Talking Heads,
or show him as a different man due to being a survivor?

FT: I’d say he’s definitely a different man. As you say, M-Day
would’ve been a life changing experience for some mutants. Some
would’ve “found religion”, so to speak, and taken it as a chance to
make a fresh start—and that’s what I see happening with Avalanche.

In fact, when we find him in our story, he’s not running around in
funny under wear anymore or running after whoever the hell heads the
Brotherhood now– the only thing he’s running these days is a bar.

NRAMA: A bar?

FT: Yep. He’s retired to a fairly quiet existence, running a
little bar in San Fran. But, of course, we all know what a bad location
he’s picked because that’s where the X-Men are heading.

You can pretty much see how it all pretty much hits the fan for him after that.

NRAMA: So when the X-men show up… given what the mutants have
been through, as well as Cyclops' telepathic call to all mutants to
come to San Francisco...why would a member want to stand against other
members of this small "tribe," for lack of a better term?

FT: I believe the question you should be asking instead is why would the tribe want to stand against the one member?

M day really has changed everything… so how much have the X-Men and
their methodologies changed as a result? That’s the question this story
really addresses.

NRAMA: Which X-men in particular are involved in this story?

X-Men: Manifest Destiny #5, page 5

FT: Probably my four favorite X-men of all time:

Colossus.

Beast.

Nightcrawler.

And… get ready for it… surprise, surprise… Wolverine.

Wolvie really does most of the heavy lifting in the story—I’ve always
seen him as the guy the X-men would send if they wanted to send a
message to somebody. Sort of like the X-family’s leg breaker go-to-guy.

NRAMA: Again Frank, we find you writing a villain...dude, what
is it with you and the bad guys? Do you find that you have more
latitude with them, as opposed to heroes, who by and large have to stay
on a relatively narrow pre-ordained path?

FT: Well, truthfully, this is almost as much an X-Men story as
it is an Avalanche one. And if you’ve been paying attention—and I know
you have, Matt—my work as of late has been largely hero-centric
(Batman, Outsiders, for DC, Nick Fury, Hulk for Marvel Digital) That
being said…

Yeah, I know, I’m doing another villain thing. I guess partly because
it’s become sort of my niche by now. People decide to do villain pieces
and I’m usually one of the people who comes to mind. I take it as a
compliment, actually—it shows that the work I’ve done in the past with
villains is appreciated, and that people think I can bring something
interesting to the table.

And the maybe the key word to that last sentence is “interesting”—I
just find villains to be more interesting… more real. I’ve said it
before and I’ll say it again—I don’t know too many people who, upon
getting super powers, will put on a pair of long underwear and start
running into burning buildings or pulling cats out of trees. More than
likely they’d knock over the nearest bank or beat the ever-living crap
out of that kid they never liked from high school. More than likely the
people I know would be what would be considered villains, so that’s
probably where a lot of it comes from.

Besides… aren’t villains just a hell of a lot more fun anyway?

NRAMA: So where will we see your name show up next?

FT: Well, I know my output’s been DC heavy as of late (so much
so that a lot of people mistakenly thought I was DC exclusive) but the
pendulum’s going to shift a bit and you’ll be seeing my name involved
with a lot of upcoming Marvel stuff. I expect one of those projects to
announced fairly soon, but for the most part, a lot of the other stuff
will come to light at New York Comic Con and beyond.